Gunshot wounds cited in N.H. man’s death

ACTON – A New Hampshire man who police say was killed in an exchange of gunfire with sheriff’s deputies after a highway chase died of gunshot wounds to the head, the state Medical Examiner’s Office said Saturday.

The findings followed an autopsy in Augusta on the body of Dale Pelletier, 37, of Milton, N.H.

Brian MacMaster of the Maine Attorney General’s Office said Pelletier died in a confrontation in Acton, about 400 feet from the New Hampshire state line.

According to Maine Public Safety Department spokesman Stephen McCausland, Pelletier was wanted in connection with a shooting in New Hampshire when a deputy spotted his pickup truck in Lebanon.

A resulting chase ended by the state line when officers rammed the truck.

McCausland said shots were then fired from the truck’s cab and that sheriff’s deputies returned fire.